Death Among the Stars Quest 18GraveQM!OAW/XsPFOk12/10/15(Thu)18:55:02No.44097319

Talons and Cyclops dart through alien waters as they hunt and chase away packs of Kryssers in the seas of Rukor. The predators were dangerous nuisances, nearly dragging off several unwary Reconstructed into the depths. They were cunning beasts, laying ambushes hiding in the holes and crevasses that looked too small to hold them. The reefs and rocks of the atoll Nekris chose to construct his outpost provide many hiding spots for the tenacious pack hunters but your new amphibious soldiers were deadly on a completely different level.

Agona's bunker is well under way, the beginnings of tunnels and rooms to secure a proper Cauldron and armory being hollowed out by tireless diggers and soldiers. The rain was heavier than normal, the lightning flashing often in the clouds above. Her ships were landed to avoid any potential strikes, relying on Gargoyles and Cyclops sentries to keep watch along the slopes of the rainslicked mesa. Thunder rumbles through the peaks and then through the stone under their feet. The still terrified Stonestar saying it was the Lavafather stirring in their sleep.

Sitting on your throne you look over to the group of Ructu, your astral form teaching them more and more. Only three of the four still holding contact with the sigil carved stone, the fourth sitting in stubborn dismissal of the truths you revealed. Elsewhere on Horizon's Drop in the large plains of swaying grass Red-Leaf-Strains argues with her sisters about the lessons she'd recently started sharing with the younger members of the herds, the matron firmly standing by her decision to continue them.

>>44097319Welcome back folks, sorry for the delay had to stay longer at work

Pastebin with troop and item costs and important info: http://pastebin.com/XHeJpk86Pastebin with ship builder and weapon costs: http://pastebin.com/2uxM7VbiMake sure to follow my twitter where I announce the threads: https://twitter.com/CeroTheNullAlso archive of previous threads: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?searchall=death+among+the+starsAsk.fm: http://ask.fm/DeathAmongTheStarsQuest

>>44097439Completed Research:>Confederate Frigate: A troop transport used to transfer the cyborg soldiers the old Confederacy appeared to use as soldiers. Age and the harsh environment it had crashed in was not kind on the ship but something of note survived. A blackbox somehow still appearing to be intact and

Discovered:>Old Confederacy Star Charts and Files: Medium

>Cyborg Remains: The skeletal remains of several species, the bones sheathed in a durable metal alloy, craniums full of circuitry and receivers for their commands. Torsos are heavily armored, containing a powercore somehow fueled by Necrotic energy. The powercore contains what appears to be artificially grown necrotic crystals. They appeared to be crafted from the same genetic tissues as the host cyborgs bone, each powercore personally crafted from the corpse. A crude and eccentric form of reanimation.

>Metal-Sheathed Bones: Weaving a thin but durable sheath of metal over the bones of a Reconstructed soldier it provides a bonus to it's durability and increased tolerance for high-gravity situations but at the cost of increasing its weight. Cost: 2M

>>44097691Nekris stands on the back end of a Chariot hovering over the gently rolling waves, his spine caster gripped in his larger pair of arms. Keen eyes flit across the surface of the water moving independently of each other. The four eyes suddenly lock on a target and his weapon snaps up. He fires three quick shots into the water, the weapon hardly making a sound and soon three Kryssers float to the surface, the neurotoxin killing them in moments.

Nodding to the Stinger piloting the craft they scoop up the floating corpses before turning to weave through the small islands back toward the corvette and the outpost well under way.

Gargoyles perch in dense trees, overwatching several nearby Ructu villages. Upon closer investigation in each one they spot a shrine or statue dedicated to the Ahkam, piles of preserved food wrapped in large leaves awaiting a visit from the illusive megalomaniacs.

Similarly, on the moon Agona was constructing her garrison coffin and Gargoyle recon has spotted several other ritual sites. Stone sacrificial altars dot the landscapes near volcanic springs and lava flows, either surrounded by standing stones or toppled stones with a monolith of white stone carved into serpentine curves. Corpses of Stonestars piled in high in both. The Stonestars were clearly in the midst of a holy war.

There was much to do and see and create. Sitting on your throne in the darkness you ponder your next move.>Assist research>Create troops>Create ships>Speak to minions>Speak to Generals>Control Generals>Other

The shipyards on Horizon's Drops moon churn with renewed activity, armatures of bone and muscle starting the construction of the Harvester Ships. They would be the perfect tool for stripping asteroid of their bounties.

>Create feeding factory for Catoblepas.Think Tanks propose a factory to contain your Catoblepas, turning them from free-range foragers leaving blighted earth in their wake into a single facility to help contain their blight and possibly speed up biomass production. The kelp vats would have to be increased to keep their production stable but the Think Tanks are confident in the plan.>Cost: 300B 200M

>>44098750Send Eyegores to Red Dwarf system and two new systemsRoll me 3d100 best of first three pls

In addition to the Harvester Ships being crafted you direct them to craft a flight of Frigates. As the armatures jerk and move building the spine of the ships you decide that half of them should appear as Osjiic craft as an afterthought. They would be useful as ambush material or bait. You did have a surplus of Osjiic soldiers at your disposal along with the Voidsinger.

You consider testing the Voidsingers loyalty in battle, perhaps sent along with Lorgul in a future conflict.

>>44098986Your idle Eyegores power up their Void Drives, stretching off into the distance before snapping away like a cut string. It would take some time for the scouts to reach the systems by way of Void Drive but you feared detection from arriving with a Skip Drive.

A pair of aquatic Talons swim through a dark underwater tunnel, hunting for a den of Kryssers in a nearby island. Their sonar allows them to see even in the darkness, flippered feet kicking as they search.

Out of the darkness a group of Kryssers emerge from holes in the cavern walls, teeth flashing with the luminescent spots in their large maws. The Talons dart and dash out of the way, firing clusters of flechettes from their shardspitters as the kryssers pass. Unfortunately they were outnumbered in the narrow cave and they were soon each caught in the maws of the predators but to Nekris' surprise they do not tear them apart.

The Talons panicked sonar suddenly detects movement from new creatures. They swim past oddly docile kryssers, the strangely shaped humanoids with long faces and longer flat tails aiming a weapon at them in the dark. There's a burst of bubbles and your Talons go blank.

Nekris stands knee-deep in the shallows on a sandbar, watching as around the outpost several patrols of amphibious troops suddenly go silent. Kryssers attacking in coordinated ambushes or sniped underwater from a distance by the unseen assailant.

The Predator Nekris growls in anger as he withdraws his patrols to defensive positions around the atoll. The sonar images in the tunnel had given a crude image of the attackers controlling the kryssers. The Think Tank saying resembled the Sunscale Worker but sleeker and seemingly shaped for aquatic travel.

>>44099695>The Predator Nekris growls in anger as he withdraws his patrols to defensive positions around the atoll. The sonar images in the tunnel had given a crude image of the attackers controlling the kryssers. The Think Tank saying resembled the Sunscale Worker but sleeker and seemingly shaped for aquatic travel.

>>44099492I say we go on the offensive now. Split our forces into a single large formation and several small forces. Send the largest to attack the location of the most central ambush location, surrounded by all the others. When our new enemy attempts to counter attack it we will watch from afar and send our smaller formations to surround them without them realizing it.

>>44099937Spine Casters work pretty well underwater almost like a speargun. Same with shard spitters and bone riflesThumpers can launch a grenade over a short distance and the damage is somewhat weakened by the water though it can be used to deploy poisons into the water. Further research could lead to better effectiveness of them underwater.Sting Whips of both kinds work fine and the Zapper adaptation actually does more damage underwater and can be used to increase a units electrical detection senses.

Nekris quickly orders the Cauldron buried in the stone of the atoll to churn out appropriate soldiers, his troops falling back to fortified positions.

Chitin claws tap the barrel of his spine caster, a flare of excitement rising up inside him. The Revenant and Punisher would be quite jealous that the Predator would be the first to meet true battle since the conquest of the warring fleets.

>>44100329Nekris stands on his corvettes hull where it was beached over the construction of the bunker, the pair of Coffins recalled and hovering overhead. The Nails float in the water, ready to lift off at a moments notice. The remaining amphibious troops swim their patrols of the atoll in large groups. Flying Gargoyles and silent Cyclopes keeping watch on the water and horizons.

Alarms suddenly blare from the Think Tank in the corvette. Cyclopes and Gargoyles reporting a multitude of missiles lifting off from nearby islands and racing towards the site. The Corvettes auxilliary weapons swivel and fill the air with flack from its repeater cannons, the flash of the weapons illuminating Nekris on the hull of the corvette, his cloak billowing in the sudden wind. He swings up his rifle and with supernatural aim fires to shoot down two of the larger missiles.

The Coffins are struck by stinger missiles, one of them engulfed in flames before exploding violently and raining down debris. The other dives and lands in the water to smother the flames of its broken engine but surviving. Several swarm missiles make it past the flack of bone and metal and strike the beaches and sandbars scattering your troops and striking the shield of the corvette.

Just as soon as it had happened the attack was over, smoke rising into the air from the impact sites. Gargoyles fly rapidly to scout where the missiles had come from and find only the remains of what appeared to be remote fire systems that had self-detonated after firing their payloads. Footprints of large creatures dot the sand around them.

>>44100972The waters around Nekris' base churn with the new numbers of amphibious troops. Aquatic gargoyles, their wings and legs turned into powerful flippers, twist and dart through the water, their keep eyes and array of sensory organs revealing much of the layout of the atoll.

Stalkers creep along the wooded islands of the atoll, ignoring the small colorful mammals that fled before them. Others swim alongside Talons and Cyclops through the water, the new reconstructed the fastest of them all in the aquatic environment.

There was no sign of the kryssers or the reptilian attackers, flying Gargoyles and the two Nails flying fast patrols as they search and hunt.

Elsewhere in the system Agona reports movement at several of the sacrificial altars, Gargoyles watching from a distance as groups of Stonestars emerge from the stones, dragging captive stonestars to be crucified and stretched across the altars. Obsidian blades flash in the light of the storm as the sacrifices are sliced to pieces, portions of the bodies tossed into lavaflows or steaming springs.

The massive volcano near the original sacrificial site rumbling and leaking flows of bright orange lava, stirring from its restless slumber.

There was much to focus on.

What shall you do?>Control Nekris>Assist research>Create troops>Create ships>Speak to minions>Speak to Generals>Control Generals>Other

>>44101175>>Control NekrisWe need to lock down, or at the very least identify, whatever it was that fired those missiles. Considering that little fiasco was the result of an 80, we can't really afford to let this thread marshal itself against us.

>>44101865Reconstructed troops get busy using grates of metal forged from the Cauldron, sealing off the channels and tunnels leading into the atoll while posting Cyclopes sentries hidden under a mat of seaweed and sand. It didn't take long before there was a trio of kryssers trying to sneak into the atoll skimming along the sea floor. They were quickly slain by Stalkers emerging from under the sand and silent shots from hidden Cyclopes.

Gargoyle eels and Stalkers swim out with Talons trailing behind, darting from island to island in the chain. Flying Gargoyles and high flying Nails trail after them, a pair of Chariots with Trolls toting Bone Repeaters skimming along the surface of the water.

Predator Nekris sat inside the cockpit of a Chariot he modified for himself, the fast craft racing just above the surface of the water. A flying Gargoyle and pair of Stalkers coiled in the side compartments were his only companions as he went hunting, searching the far flung islands.

This was his first true hunt, the warrior feeling the excitement growing within, taking a moment to relish the feeling before calming himself with to focus on the task at hand.

He was the hunter of the new Necrotic Armada. He would prove himself to his liege and creator.